Overlapping lines in adjacent shapes

[RIBugBoy]

Hello Adobe forums! I've been searching and troubleshooting an issue I'm having when constructing larger shapes with series of smaller shapes. The adjacent shapes have very uneven stroke thicknesses because the strokes are somewhat overlapping (first image). I've already seen some similar questions, and attempted to follow the advice of using direct select to delete the overlapping path segments and using the scissors tool to do the same, but when I do this I lose a large piece of color (second image). I know I could fix it in Photoshop easily, but I'd rather get it right as a vector.

I DID just recently learn to trim overlapping corners with the scissors tool, and did that everywhere I saw them. Is it possible I deleted too much with scissors so deleting the paths now results in the changed shape? Did I just do a lousy job aligning? I appreciate any advice from anybody with more experience. Thank you!

[Michael Riordan · Accepted solution]

Hi Bugboy

not sure you need to do any cutting at all, you probably just need to align the anchor points better. I Recommend that you use the outline Mode so you can see the vectors (View>Outlines) and zoom in very closely. Use the arrow keys to nudge the art into place (set a very small nudge amount in the preferences if you need to) and/or use the direct select tool to edit the paths that don’t quite fit correctly. You can also use the transform panel to determine the x,y coordinates of any given anchor and then choose the anchor that needs to be perfectly aligned with it and type those values into the same fields in the transform panel.

To fix the damage already done with the cutting that you’ve been doing you could select all of your art and then use the live paint bucket to fill back in the missing color gaps. It will see the spaces even though there is no vector shape currently in place to fill.

hope that helps

[Anna Lander]

no, no, scissors is not a tool for this case. The best way is like Michael says: switch to Outline mode, turn on the SnaptoPoint option and move the anchor points with very big zoom.

Finally, you can use a Trim option in Pathfinder panel, it will delete all overlapped (invisible) areas, but you will not need it if you adjust the point positions correctly. 

[RIBugBoy]

Thank you Anna and Michael! I hadn't considered using outline mode and the X, Y coordinates. I like that idea better than continuing to fuss with clicking and dragging.